Fragrance sampling means and method

ABSTRACT

1,270,052. Coatings of fragrance-containing microcapsules. MINNESOTA MINING &amp; MFG. CO. 8 July, 1969 [9 July, 1968], No. 34445/69. Heading B2E. [Also in Division A4] A tape has a layer comprising microcapsular shells containing oily liquid droplets of a fragrance. The backing may be of paper, which may be coated, e.g. with polyethylene or other non-woven web of natural or synthetic fibres, or a film, such as of polyester, polyethylene or polyvinyl chloride. The capsules may be attached to the substrate by means of an adhesive such as copolymers of acrylic acid esters of non-tertiary alkyl alcohol with acrylic acid, methacrylic acid, itaconic acid, acrylamide and methacrylamide. The microcapsular shells may be of urea-formaldehyde polymer. An adhesive coat may be applied to the other surface.

Feb. 10, 1970 D. K. HUEBNER ETAL 3,494,505

' FRAGRANCE SAMPLING MEANS AND METHOD Filed July 9, .1968

. I N VEN TORS 044 544 KfiuiaA/m 5/5650 1?. P404, J/z 12, MM

United States Patent FRAGRANCE SAMPLING MEANS AND METHOD Darell K.Huebner, White Bear Lake, and Fred R. Paul,

Jr., Burnsville, Miun., assignors to Minnesota Mining and ManufacturingCompany, St. Paul, Minn., a corporation of Delaware Filed July 9, 1968,Ser. No. 743,511 Int. Cl. G01f 11/00 U.S. Cl. 222-1 3 Claims ABSTRACT OFTHE DISCLOSURE A method is provided for sampling fragrances whichcomprises incorporating the fragrance into pressurerupturablemicroscopically-sized capsules coated on a tape backing and thenrupturing the capsules as the tape is dispensed to release thefragrance. Means is also provided for carrying out the method.

This invention comprises a method and means for sampling fragrances, andparticularly for sampling perfume fragrances.

Perfumes have traditionally been packaged in glass or ceramiccontainers. Perfume manufacturers generally have a variety of fragrancesfrom which the customer may choose the one that suits. These fragrancesare usually marketed over the counter through drugstores, boutiques,department stores and under similar environmental conditions where alarge variety of perfume fragrances from many manufacturers aredisplayed.

Heretofore, as a practical matter, a prospective customer for a perfumefragrance could choose among fragrances only by snifling an openedcontainer of the fragrance. Because of the delicate nature of perfumefragrances, once a container is opened and used for sampling purposes,the perfume may lose its distinctive scent in a very short period oftime due to exposure to air. Consequently, not only must a considerablestock of nonsalable perfume be carried to permit sampling, but with timeand several exposures to air of the same container for the sampling of afragrance therein, the true fra grance is probably not even beingsampled. Because perfumes are rather delicate and expensive to beginwith, this requirement in the past has been an onerous one for theperfume manufacturer and a time consuming nuisance to the sales clerkeven though it has been necessary to sell the perfume product. Anotherproblem is the always present and substantial risk of contamination withother perfumes upon sampling from a multiplicity of containers wherebythe customer may never really be aware of the true scent of the perfumefragrance being sampled.

It is the object of this invention to provide a means and method fordispensing perfume fragrances which eliminates the expense and hazardsof the previously used methods for sampling fragrances and which inaddition greatly simplifies the sampling procedure avoiding any dangerof loss or deterioration of scent or contamination prior to sampling andeliminating any requirement to disturb or open the containers in whichthe perfume is normally sold.

In accordance with this invention the perfume fragrance is encapsulatedinto tiny microcapsules which are coated onto a backing to form a tapewhich is then dispensed from rolls in strip form so that as the tape isdispensed, and only as it is dispensed, the microcapsules are 3,494,505Patented Feb. 10, 1970 ble while at the same time decreasing theover-all expense of such sampling to the manufacturer of the perfumefragrance and decreasing the amount of time necessary for a sales clerkto assist a prospective perfume customer. Further, it provides a way toovercome the natural reluctance of a sales person to open furtherperfume bottles for sampling by those persons the sales person may doubtto be really prospective customers.

The method and means of this invention will be further described withrelation to the accompanying drawing wherein:

FIGURE 1 is a perspective view of a roll of fragrance tape;

FIGURE 2 is a cross-sectional view on a greatly enlarged scale takensubstantially along the plane of Section line 22 of FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 3 is a side elevational view with parts being broken away of adispenser with the tape in place therein showing how the fragrance isreleased as the tape is dispensed for sampling of the fragrance.

Referring now to the accompanying drawing in detail, there isillustrated in its entirety by the numeral 10 in FIGURE 1 a roll of tapecarrying a perfume fragrance for use in accordance with this invention.

As illustrated in FIGURE 2, the tape 10 of FIGURE 1 comprises a backing12 having coated on one surface thereof a coating 14 composed of asuitable binder 16 within which small microscopic capsules 18 containinga perfume fragrance are more or less uniformly distributed. In the tapeshown, the backing 12 has on the opposite surface from the perfumefragrance coated surface thereof an adhesive layer 20 and a liner 22 toprotect the underlying coating 14 of the next layer of tape in the rollfrom any contamination by the adhesive. As shown the liner 22 is scoredalong the centerline as at 24 thereof so that it may be readily strippedfrom the tape as the tape is dispensed whereupon the one sampling thetape can simply apply it to the hem of a garment for example, or even tothe back of the hand while savoring the scent of the fragrance releasedfrom the tape as it is dispensed In FIGURE 3 a dispenser is illustratedconsisting of a hollow dispenser body 26 within which the roll of tape10 is disposed. The dispenser is provided with a slot through which thetape is dispensed. The slot is formed by the juncture of a dull blade 27on a hinged cover 28 of the dispenser body which seats within a more orless inverted V-shaped depression 30 formed between the surface of thefront wall 32 of the body of the dispenser adjacent the hinged cover andan inside wall 34. Exteriorly of the dispenser body 26 the hinged cover28 is provided with a sharpened edge 36 on projection of the hingedcover terminating in cutting edge 36. To sample a fragrance, a strip ofthe tape is pulled through the dispenser slot while the cover ismaintained firmly in place whereby the capsules on the tape are rupturedas the tape is forced against blade 27 as it is pulled through the slot.

The cutting edge 36 projects outwardly considerably beyond the end wall32 of the dispenser 26 so that after a piece of tape has been severedfor sampling a portion projects outwardly from the dispenser for pullingthe next section of tape through the slot.

Preferably the tape backing 12 is a non-absorbent odorless substrate. Itmay be of paper or other nonwoven web of natural or synthetic fibers orit may be a synthetic polymer film such as one of polyethylene,polyester, polyvinyl chloride, etc. A preferred backing is one of papersaturated or impregnated or coated with polyethylene.

Thesurface of the backing remaining uncoated with capsules may or maynot be coated with adhesive as is desired by the perfume marketer. Inthe embodiment illustrated one surface of the tape is provided with anadhesive and with a liner over the adhesive so that the tape can beadhesively applied after dispensing if desired. The adhesive may be anyone of the conventionally used pressure-sensitive adhesives known to themarket place such as the butadieneacrylonitrile adhesives or theacryllate adhesives or similar performing adhesives. Acrylate adhesivessuch as those of Patent Re. 24,906 issued Dec. 13, 1960 (original PatentNo. 2,884,126 issued Apr. 28, 1959) to Ulrich are preferred as they havelow skin sensitivity.

The perfume fragrance is usually provided by an essential oil or otherliquid preparation which gives ofl? an agreeable odor which isencapsulated as an oily fill liquid in microscopically sized capsularshells of possibly 5 to 150 microns in size wherein the shell walls areof a material substantially inert to the organic substance forming theperfume fragrance, which is usually proteinaceous in nature. By far thepreferred capsule shells are those of urea-formaldehyde polymer whichare able apparently to encapsulate therewithin even the most delicate offragrance giving organic materials Without loss of fragrance orfragrance potency when stored in such capsules for long periods of time.For very gross fragrances such as Wintergreen or menthol or the like,other capsules such as those of gelatin made in the manner described inPatent No. 2,800,457, issued July 23, 1957 to Green and Schleicher. Anexample for making the preferred urea-formaldehyde polymer shelledcapsules is given hereinafter.

EXAMPLE Into 7700 parts by weight of water was introduced 4900 parts ofa water soluble precondensate of urea and formaldehyde in about 1:2molar ratio composed predominately of di-methylol urea formaldehyde,1340 parts of a solution of NaCl was then added to reduce the solubilityof the fill liquid. Next 3300 parts of organic fill liquid immiscible inthe aqueous solution and consisting of 2650 parts perfume and 650 partsof diethyl phthalate as a diluent therefor were added and the resultantmixture agitated with turbine blades revolving at 2200 r.p.m. tomaintain the perfume fill liquid as small discrete droplets in theaqueous solution. Then 30 parts 3 N hydrochloric acid was added in threeincrements, the second over a three minute period begun 3 minutes afterthe first increment, and the third over a 30 minute period begun 30minutes after the completion of the addition of the second increment.All of the foregoing steps were carried out at approximately 70 F. Afterthe last acid addition, the temperature was raised to 105 F. and theurea-formaldehyde polymerization reaction was allowed to proceed at thattemperature for approximately 8 hours. Then the bath was neutralized.The resulting urea-formal dehyde capsules were insoluble in water,averages about microns in size and consisted of approximately 40% byweight perfume liquid fill.

The capsule slurry so made Was then converted into a slurry suitable forcoating by combining two parts capsules with one part water solublepolyvinyl alcohol (approximately hydrolyzed, 3,000 molecular weight,measured by weight average) on a dry weight basis. The coating isapplied at a dry weight of between 4 and about 7 pounds per square yardsof surface area and dried with hot forced air at F. maximum for about 30seconds. The coating was applied on a backing of paper thinly coatedwith a polymeric moisture barrier (polyethylene in this case) to reducedistortion of the sheet after coating and drying.

When an adhesive is applied to the opposite face of the tape as in theillustrated embodiment an ordinary clay coated paper may be used inplace of the preferred paper noted hereinbefore, the adhesive preferablybeing one of those described and claimed in vUlrich Patent No. Re.24,906.

The tape Was then put into a dispenser of the kind illustrated in FIGURE3 and used to sample the fragrance in the manner previously describedherein.

That which is'claimed is:

1. A method for sampling perfume fragrances which comprisesincorporating the fragrance in the form of oily liquid droplets inmicrocapsular shells provided as a surface coating on a tape wound inroll form and then dispensing the tape from a dispenser which crushesthe capsules to release the fragrance therefrom as the tape isdispensed.

2. Means for sampling perfume fragrances which comprises a tape wound inroll form adapted to be carried within a dispenser for dispensingtherefrom, said tape comprising a paper backing having a polymericmoisture barrier on the surface thereof, and a coating thereon ofmicrocapsules having urea-formaldehyde polymer shells and containingtherewithin an evaporable liquid incorporating a perfume therein oversaid moisture barrier.

3. The means of claim 2 further including a dispenser within which saidtape is housed, .said dispenser having a slot therein for the passage ofthe tape therethrough and including means for crushing the capsules onthe tape coating as the tape is dispensed from the dispenser.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,907,682 10/ 1959 Eichel.3,189,227 6/ 1965 Hobbs et al 222-541 X 3,212,669 10/ 1965 Kruger 221-703,260,404 7/ 1966 Critchell 221-74 X 3,317,630 5/ 1967 Yuille. 3,335,1138/1967 Dundon.

ROBERT B. REEVES, Primary Examiner NORMAN L. STACK, 111., AssistantExaminer US. Cl. X.R.

